My newest publication customer is adding quality requirements to their multi-year contract and has asked me to supply the industry standard for registration tolerances. Does anything exist like that for heatset web offset printing?

I wish it did because then we'd have a better answer for the many questions we receive about standards and specifications for print quality. The truth, however, is that there are virtually no specific standards that cover print quality due to all of the different raw materials and the lack of quality standards for the materials. Each print job is custom manufactured usually at the lowest bid with the least expensive materials. For commercial printing on coated paper a common tolerance would be one row of dots. Another definition for acceptable register or fit is that any mis-register should not be visible at a normal viewing distance. The Government Printing Office in their GPO Contract Terms publication defines defects and acceptable numbers of defects for various quality levels of work they purchase. Companies need to develop their own quality document for their print markets and their customers' expectations. This is more difficult when different quality levels of work are being produced (e.g., from annual reports to advertising inserts). The quality document may need to be customized for different markets or customers.

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